Top Kalimpong Restaurants & Bars
There are very few great restaurants and bars in Kalimpong. For convenience, most tourists prefer to dine at the in-house restaurants of the hotels they stay at. But if you are looking for variations and good food, eventually you must look outside.
Gompus Bar & Restaurant
(Category: Budget)
This is a cozy restaurant located right in the market area and opposite the Damber Chowk on a narrow lane. This restaurant too is extremely popular with tourists and locals. It's run by a Tibetan family which is also running a hotel upstairs through several generations (Gompu's Hotel) since the early 1900s.
Gompu's Hotel and Restaurant
The restaurant at the ground floor serves nice Chinese, Tibetan & Indian dishes. In starter or snacks you get items like garlic chili potato, chicken drumsticks, chicken wings, fish & chips, onion rings, pakodas and even the local dish alu dum. You get some choices of soups as well like wonton soup, chicken mushroom soup etc. But one of the famous here is the pork or chicken momos (comes fried or steamed).
Gompu's Bar and Restaurant, Kalimpong
And there are different preparations of stir fried noodles, noodle soups, fried rice, chicken & pork side orders, some select Indian dishes etc. When I asked the Nepali waiter to suggest something good and light, he suggested fried rice with Chinese chicken curry. It was delicious. There is a small bar counter at one corner which is managed by ladies during the day time. You will find a small toilet at the staircase.
Gompu's Restaurant
Location & Contact info
Gompu's Bar & Restaurant (open 7am to 9pm)
Damber Chowk, Kalimpong -734301, Darjeeling District, W.B. India
Phone + 91 (3552) 255818; Mobile 9832435448
Art Cafe
If you are craving for a coffee or want to enjoy a relaxing yet youthful vibe in quiet while enjoying some nice innovative food and beverage, then this is the place to go in Kalimpong. The cafe is located up a flight of stairs above Indian Overseas Bank and is not quite prominently noticeable from the road. So you must look out for the sign. It's on Rishi road and barely 70 meters away from the main chowk or the crossing area where the main market stretch of Kalimpong starts.
As the name suggests, the place is all about aesthetics and art. As you enter, there is an indoor area and the first thing you notice is the artwork on the walls. There are many other antique as well recyclable items used in the decor... for example, there is an old model of telephone set kept aesthetically. There are couches to relax on and have your food and beverage.
Wall art at Art Cafe, Kalimpong
Many plants decorate the place. There are magazines to give you company if you want. The overall ambience is simple, nothing extraordinary but at the same time quite cool. A rarity in a place like Kalimpong. Jazz music plays on all the time and often there is also a live band.
The cafe also has an outdoor roof-covered terrace area which is probably the most coveted place for all who visit the cafe. You get wonderful views of Kalimpong town and the mountains around. A great time to come here is before the sunset so that you can watch wonderful sunset from the open terrace... the sunset takes place far away over the Tiger Hill and Phalut hills... awesome!
Outdoor Terrace
Photo: Art Cafe, Kalimpong
Wooden tables are scattered on the terrace area. I wish the chairs on the terrace which are ordinary iron foldable seats were replaced with more comfortable ones. After all, the whole theme here is to encourage you to get engrossed in conversations, relax and not to bother about time. They deliberately do not offer wi-fi (and there is a board that clearly says so) in order to discourage you to spend your time on mobile or laptop.
Now, on the food and beverage. They serve a range of coffee, shakes and other beverages along with nice selections of cafe fares that are made with innovative touch. Some of the very popular food here includes the barbecue chicken wings, chicken drums of heaven (amazing and vibrant colored sauces used but tasty nevertheless), chicken burger which is served with a portion of French fries and has lots of cucumber, tomatoes, a fried egg, cheese and a chicken patty in it, chicken sandwich etc.
Barbecue Chicken Wings
Photo: Art Cafe, Kalimpong
They recently introduced 'Subwich' which is adapted from the traditional Banh Mi sandwich of Vietnam. The owners during their travel to Vietnam fell in love with it and decided to introduce it in the cafe. And if you are hungry, try out their Schezwan chicken rice with drums of heaven chicken.
Subwich
Photo: Art Cafe, Kalimpong
There are veggie options as well like toasted veggie sandwich, and while they make nice thin crusted non-veg pizzas (like smoked chicken sausage pizza), but the veggie thin crusted pizza with lots of cheese on it tastes really delicious.
Other than home made ice creams (try out the mango ice cream if you are an ice cream lover), they make a range of delicious cakes which are always freshly made. Marble cake is one of them, but the best of the lot is chocolate with roasted almond. Also try out the chocolate mocha. In shakes they offer varieties such as banana peanut butter shake, Oreo shake etc and they are all quite filling.
Veggie Pizza
Photo: Art Cafe, Kalimpong
Art Cafe is one of the most popular eateries in Kalimpong and gets full most times with both locals and tourists. They serve breakfast as well. The price ranges from Rs. 160 - 180 per food item. Orders are taken on a blank piece of paper and bills too are given on a blank paper.
Open Hours: 9am to 7pm
Mobile: 097495 48034
Art Cafe (above Indian Overseas Bank)
Sharma Building, Opposite Kalimpong Library
Thana Dara, Kalimpong Kalimpong, India 734301
King Thai Restaurant
(Category: Budget/Mid Range)
The restaurant is located right at the town square at the entrance to the market and at a corner. Although the large green board outside says 'Multi Cuisine' restaurant, strangely you won't get Thai food here despite its name. It's essentially a Chinese restaurant also serving few Nepali and Bengali dishes.
From the road, climb up two flights of stairs to enter the restaurant which also has a bar area with bar stools. This is the only restaurant in Kalimpong where live musical performances are held in the evenings. There is a small performing stage in one side and a wall full of graffiti and mural. Overall a nice & friendly ambience. It's very popular with locals particularly because of the live entertainment in the evenings. This is as far a nightlife can go in a sleepy hill town like Kalimpong.
King Thai Restaurant, Kalimpong
Food is good and the portions are quite good as well. They can also vary the spice based how you want it. Ingredients used are fresh. The staff are friendly and cordial. You will enjoy a lunch or a dinner here.
Location & Contact info
3rd floor Supermarket, DB Giri Road, Kalimpong. Open 11am - 9:30pm.
Kalash Restaurant
(Category: Budget)
This is a pure vegetarian restaurant located right in the middle of the market area and below Hotel Kalash. Quite popular with locals and tourists for its wide range of dishes in budget price. They serve North Indian & South Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, Continental and even Rajasthani vegetarian food. And you get breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Kalash Restaurant, Kalimpong
In breakfast you get toast & butter, grilled sandwiches, puri sabji, paratha etc. In snacks popular items are pakodas, momos, chaats, pau bhaji etc.
In North Indian try out Tandoori roti or naan, dal makhani, paneer butter masala and kadai veg along with green salad. You get normal rotis as well. In south Indian you will get dosas, idli, vada, uttapam etc. And in Continental you get pizzas, pastas, burgers, rolls, French fries and so on. Soups and cold drinks are also available.
Inside Kalash Restaurant, Kalimpong
Location & Contact info
SDB Giri Road (Main Road), Kalimpong - 734 301
Restaurant at Sood's Garden Retreat
(Category: Mid Range)
This is the restaurant located within the boutique hotel Sood's Garden Retreat. Although it's an in-house restaurant of a hotel, when you see so many outside tourists and locals in the dining room, you can make out it's a popular dining place in Kalimpong within both the residents and visitors.
The hotel and the restaurant is located little out of the town (takes about 20-minute walk from the town center). But the ambience is very nice and cozy. The inside dining room can accommodate about 45 persons. It extends into a lovely open garden where too you can dine open air if the weather permits. There is also a lounge area that can seat 10.
Photo: Sood's Garden Retreat
And you get free wifi to browse and catch up with emails. There is a bar at the corner which has good stock of liquor and beer. However there is no heating system in the restaurant, so if you come during the winter, it can be quite cold out here.
The restaurant serves North Indian, Tandoori, Chinese, Tibetan, Continental, Nepalese and even Bengali dishes. Although the menu is not quite extensive, the food prepared is quite nice and portions are large. You get both vegetarian and non-veg dishes here. In non-veg try out the mutton curry with naan... delicious and accompany that with a chilled beer or drink (not many choices of cold drink though).
Location and Contact info
Sood's Garden Retreat
8.5 Miles Kalimpong-734301, West Bengal.
Hongkong Chinese Restaurant
This is a small budget eatery offering nice Chinese dishes. It's located right in the middle of the congested main market area of Kalimpong and on the second floor of a building. There are couple of window-side tables overlooking the crowded road below... but you won't miss much if you do not get a window-side table. The main reason why people come here is the food.
Hongkong Chinese Restaurant, Kalimpong
Inside, the decor is ordinary... the red color has been used liberally in furnishing which is quite common across such Chinese restaurants. Service too is nothing exceptional. But still the restaurant is fairly popular with locals and budget minded tourists looking to enjoy some good Chinese food. The menu has all standard Chinese items including chowmein, fried rice, macaroni and Chinese curry items including vegetable, chicken, fish, prawn and even pork dishes. try out the prawn fried rice.
In breakfast the eatery deviates from Chinese items and serves Indian items such as aloo paratha, aloo dum as well as toast, butter, eggs to order and tea/coffee.
Hongkong Restaurant is located right next to the Axis Bank (Kalimpong Branch).
D.S. Gurung Road, Kalimpong.
Mobile: (+91) 98320 71959
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